Grandma Morawitz Visits

Grandma Morawitz, or Lake Grandma, as Maggie calls her came and stayed with us for a week.    The kids got to skip school a couple days and hang out with her so they were thrilled.  Maggie even got to help make her a birthday cake since her birthday happened to land during the time she was here.  We even bought trick candles for Grandma!  I forgot how hard or how many times you actually have to blow them out.  Grandma read at least 100 books to the kids and played about 50 board games with Maggie.  She has a harder time saying “no” then we do.  :)  Overall it was a great visit and we look forward to having her back again! 

Maggie showing Grandma her card

Grandma's gift: a new coffee maker

Maggie was really proud of the cake.  It was a pink cake with white frosting and sprinkles.  Just what I am sure Grandma wanted!  :)

 

Everyone working together to blow the candles out about 6 times

Grandma was nice enough to share her piece and Tommy loved it!

Reading 'Go, Tractor, Go".  This is hands down Tommy's favorite book.  It has been since he received it on Christmas. 

Tommy's other favorite book.  "My Truck is Stuck"

 

 

Again!

This better be the last weekend of crummy weather.  We are running out of things to do with the kids inside.  This weekend we hit Chuck E Cheese, The Giggle Factory, had friends over, and took Maggie to a movie.  It would be so nice if the kids could just be outside in our own yard one of these weekends.  I am over Chuck E Cheese until at least next fall.  Both kids love it though.  They actually had a pretty good little area for Tommy to play where he could climb and go down slides all by himself.  He seemed to enjoy it a lot.  Maggie loved the games and winning tickets.  Saturday night Maggie's best friends, Aftin and Bailee, came over. While the girls were off playing, Tommy and Lance worked on his riding skills.  Tommy loves when Lance comes over because he knows he will do whatever he wants. :)  Susie took the kids to the Giggle Factory Sunday morning and they both had a blast. Tommy was running so fast that his hips nearly fell off.  Maggie liked all the slides.  Then Sunday afternoon Susie and Maggie headed to Mr. Peabody and Sherman.  Maggie really liked it.  She said there was only one scary part and that it was a much better than The Lego movie. 

Pretty proud he made it to the top of the slide all by himself

 

Lance and Tommy

Tommy loves when Lance pushes him up and down the hallways.  I am guessing they did it at least 20 times.

 

Maggie's preferred slide position these days, head first.

While Susie and Maggie hit the movie, I got some one-on-one time with this little man.  I forgot how easy he can be when it is just him.  He sure is cute and a great helper.

 

Spring Colors

Trinity had “Wear Spring Colors Day” last Friday.  The kids looked pretty cute and lively for 5:30 AM.  Tommy has been transitioning to the next older classroom at school all week.  Today (3/24/13) he officially became a Lady Bug full time.  Saying goodbye to the Bumble Bees is hard because we liked both teachers so much and Tommy really came into his own in that classroom.  New grown-up responsibilities come with being a Lady bug.  No more high chairs, no more eating with hands.  No Sippy cups.  No pack and plays or cribs.  One perk that he will be thrilled about is he does get to go outside twice a day and go on the real playground.  He has seemed like our baby and still so little, even though he is almost 18 months, up until the last few weeks—but all of a sudden he is like a little man.  Overnight it seems like our baby is gone and I am guessing now that he is a Lady Bug he is going to grow up even faster.

Tommy's first Lady Bug slip.  They said he was so helpful and sweet.  I said just wait until he gets comfortable in the classroom.  :) 

Being a Lady Bug is tough work.  He passed out the second he got home. 

 

Take Care of He

As Maggie says, “I will take care of he for all the days.”  She takes great pride in her role as big sister and 99% of the time she is loving and doting on Tommy.  She is protective and affectionate with him.  She is his best friend.  She even said “Tommy is my husband” the other day, to which mommies quickly corrected.  In all seriousness she is a better big sister than we could have ever hoped for.  She told me that she “wants to stay with Tommy for all the days because I just love he so much”.   I told her well that is a good thing because he is your brother and you are going to be stuck with him forever.  I have a feeling that when baby #3 arrives in July these two will become even closer. 

Maggie and Tommy both think doing "cheers" with their cups is the coolest thing.  It happens on a nightly basis, usually they make mommies participate too.

 

Wisconsin Dells

Last Thursday we headed down to Wisconsin dells for a long weekend.  We stayed at the Great Wolf Resort.  It was the first time taking the kids to the Dells and it was a success.  Maggie has asked when we get to go back pretty much every day since we have been home.  The kids loved the waterpark and it seemed very age appropriate for both of them.  They both had plenty of things their-size to do.  Maggie was tall enough to do all the big waterslides except one.  Tommy was able to actually do the little kid waterslides all by himself.  He looked so small walking up to the waterslides and people kept commenting that they couldn’t believe he was going down all by himself—of course one of us was waiting in the water for him at the bottom since he can’t swim.  We got  a pretty good little system down where Susie would wait at the bottom for him and I would wait at the top of the slides.  So Susie would catch him, put him on the edge of the pool and he would come climbing back up to me at the top.  They also had the lily pads/rope that you can climb across the pool on.  At first Maggie was a little intimidated, as it was only mostly big kids doing them, but by the 3^rd day she was a pro—no help from mommies and she was one of the faster kids.  There was also one waterslide that she was timid to try until the last day but she got brave and did and loved it.  She calls it the “magic carpet ride”.  It is pretty steep and pretty much straight down and you have to lay on a mat face first.  I couldn’t believe she did it and now she won’t stop talking about it.  It was a wonderful trip. 

Two frogs on a log

Tommy loved the water jets spraying out of the ground.  He has no issues with water spraying him in the face.

These are the magic carpet slides, the top is up another 3or 4 stories

This is one of my favorite Maggie faces ever.  She is so excited and proud of herself all at the same time.  Mommies were proud too.  She had got scared at the last minute and walked back down the stairs the previous day.  By the last day it was her favorite slide.

We may never have a normal picture of both of them looking at the camera again.

 

 

Dance Party

Maggie is always dancing around the house and it looks like her brother may be picking up on some of her finer moves.  Nothing but talent in this household...well sort of.



Rides

All of these post are starting to sound and look alike.  It has been a long, cold winter and we are running out of different indoor activities.  We spent the day on Sunday at MOA again, doing rides.  The rides are a huge hit with both kids and for 5-6 hours of entertainment it isn’t too expensive.  The mall was crazy busy on Sunday but it doesn’t faze the kids.  I think they would have stayed all night if we let them.  Maggie and Susie tried something new this time.  They did the big ropes course and the big huge slides.  Susie and Maggie both LOVED the slides.  Susie enjoyed the ropes course, Maggie only liked portions of it.  She is still pretty short to do a lot of it on her own.  Maggie said the slides were her favorite part.  Tommy likes any and all rides.  He is hilarious, half of the time he is signing “more” before we even get off the ride.  Both kids were so happy, sweet and thankful all day…it was amazing.  I mean they are always good but it was just one of those perfect days where you start thinking you have the best family in the whole world. 

Our happy girl

Tommy is wild on every ride.  He can make a boring train ride look exciting!

These are the big slides Susie and Maggie did at least 5 times

Tommy loved the horses.  I had to pry his hands off when the ride was over.  And then he started trying to kiss the horse. 

Maggie still thinks Dora is super cool!

Tommy still loves these cars.  He says "whoa, whoa" around every corner and screams with delight.

You can't help but smile when you go on the rides with him because he is so cute and excited.

Maggie loves the cars too, especially when she can pretend to catch Susie and Tommy in the car ahead of her.

Maggie did some more big rides.  She is so brave all by herself.

This is Tommy standing in line eyeing up the horses again. 

 

Retakes

Picture retakes never turn out.  The evidence of this is below.  I put a good deal of effort into making the signs for the baby announcement so I decided to attempt to get a decent picture of Tommy and Maggie before taking down the signs.  I wasn’t optimistic so I didn’t even bother dressing the kids cute or combing their hair Saturday morning…..and I am glad I didn’t.  Though there were no tears in round two; there also wasn’t a vast improvement in the finished product.  I officially gave up and took the signs down.  Even if I can’t get them both to look and smile at the same time…they sure are cute and silly!!